Great Depression/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is standing in front of an ivy-covered brick wall. TIM: Moby? Uh, Moby? Moby teleports in and stands next to Tim. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, that, that was funny. I thought I was stranded in the past during the Great Depression. Can we please go back to our own time now? Moby attempts to teleport them home using the device in his arm, but a flashing symbol indicates that his battery does not have enough power. TIM: Uh, nothing's happening. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Great, we're stuck here. Might as well answer another letter. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what was life like during the Great Depression? From, MisterPony. Looks like we're about to find out. For most people, the Great Depression was a tough time to live. After the stock market crash of 1929, people all over the world were losing their jobs. An animation shows a line chart that indicates a crashing stock market. TIM: By 1932, one in four Americans was out of work. An animation shows a man looking for work at a store. A sign in the window reads "Not Hiring." TIM: Even lots of wealthy people were affected by the Depression. An animation shows a wealthy family loading their furniture onto a moving truck. TIM: People made money any way they could. Some even begged for it. Until it was outlawed, even kids went to work to help their families eat. An animation shows a young boy selling apples to a man on the street. TIM: Some families relied on breadlines, where government workers handed out food to whoever needed it. An animation shows white adults in a line on the street, waiting for free bread. TIM: And remember, this was before the Civil Rights movement. So however hard life was in the 1930s, you can bet it was twice as bad for African Americans and other minorities. In the cities, unions organized huge protests over bad working conditions and unpaid wages. An image shows unionized plumbers on strike. TIM: They organized sit-down strikes where workers would show up at their jobs and do nothing. Unions gained a lot of influence during the Depression. A train passes behind Tim and Moby. TIM: Hey, let's catch that train! Tim and Moby run off-screen to catch the train. TIM: Across the country, young men who couldn't find work lived as hoboes. They rode around on trains and camped at night. Moby and Tim are riding in a train car, dangling their feet from the side. In the background are two hoboes who have a small bag of belongings. TIM: Farmers may have had the toughest time during the Depression. An image shows a barn and a silo. TIM: A long drought hit the Great Plains and dried out a lot of farmland. It caused huge dust storms. Moby and Tim stand in front of the barn and silo. Moby is holding a pitchfork and wearing a bandanna around his neck. As a dust storm begins, Moby covers his nose and mouth with the bandanna. TIM: The entire area was called the Dust Bowl. With all those farms ruined, millions of people left their homes and tried to make a new life in California. A map shows the United States with the Dust Bowl marked in the Midwest. The map uses a dotted line to indicate the route taken by farmers from the Midwest to California. TIM: Things weren't much better out there. An image shows a father, a mother, and a child sitting on a tattered blanket at the beach. TIM: John Steinbeck wrote all about this in his book The Grapes of Wrath. An image shows the novel "The Grapes of Wrath." TIM: With times as hard as they were, people turned to the movies to cheer them up. They wanted to forget about their troubles, so comedians like the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin were real popular. Moby and Tim stand before a rundown movie theater. An image shows a movie marquee advertising the Charlie Chaplin film "Modern Times." TIM: Even the music and dancing got a little bit sillier. Moby does a goofy dance. TIM: I guess that just goes to show you that even in the toughest times, people can find something to smile about. Speaking of music, radio brought African American music to a whole new audience. An animation shows a Depression-era family sitting by their living room fireplace, listening to their radio. TIM: Musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were adored across the country. An animation shows Louis Armstrong playing his horn. TIM: You can find out more about them in our Harlem Renaissance movie. People who lived through the Depression were scarred by it in ways we can't imagine. Many have said that their family life suffered because everyone was so busy trying to find work. Things didn't get better until around 1940, and then there was a war to deal with. A timeline appears, indicating the passage of time between the early 1920s and 1940s. The period before 1940 is labeled "The Great Depression." The period after 1940 is labeled "World War II." TIM: That's a whole different movie, though. If any of your grandparents were alive then, you can ask them about it. Moby's arm control opens and indicates that his battery is now charged. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Glad that thing's solar powered. MOBY: Beep. Moby presses the button in his arm, and the two teleport off-screen. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts